I’m an American, born and raised. The older I get, the more I absolutely despise my home country. We’ve absolutely produced things of artistic and historical value that are worth remembering. But we treat our own people like crap. This isn’t an anti-Obama or anti-GOP post. In fact, our two-party system is part of the reason I hate American politics, which effectively makes any election a decision between two caricatures of the furthest ends of the political spectrum. From the day we start school, we’re lied to about our own history, and taught to respect our flag, an arbitrary symbol of a nation that loves to kill people. We have a justice system that strives for vengeance instead of rehabilitation. Much of our taxes go into developing better ways to kill people. We have an absurdly militaristic and bloodthirsty culture, and those of us who volunteer to shoot guerrillas in the desert are worshipped like gods here. And because we have such military power, we’re paranoid that the government will take away our assault weapons, or that every non-American means us harm. We sacrifice personal liberty in the name of national security, then b**** and moan when it’s discovered that our spy agencies listen to our phone calls. We tout personal achievement, which means that we believe poor people are just poor because they’re lazy. Our public education is a joke, the people have no control over where their money goes, and the average American has the understanding of a five-year-old when it comes to the rest of the world. The racism still present in the “birthplace of equality” is disgusting. We’re one of the least progressive developed nations when it comes to LGBT rights. Our television is garbage, our mental health budget is a joke, we have unacceptable levels of violent crime, and to top it all off, we still marginalize American Indians and treat them like second-class citizens in their own land.